Currently, a variety of conveyor systems exist in the art which are used for inspecting, identifying, controlling movement and processing of articles such as containers located on a conveyor line. Inspection machines used with conveyors can include a means for moving the articles from the conveyor line to an inspecting station where the articles are examined for flaws or other physical characteristics as necessary. For example, a controlling apparatus such as a star wheel is used to control the path of the articles on the conveyor. The controlling apparatus engages the path defined by the conveyor line to receive the articles travelling along the conveyor line for inspection. In this way, the articles are only transferred back to the conveyor line if they pass the requirements of the inspection operation and are otherwise redirected onto a different set of conveyor which may serve to discard the article. This approach may be disadvantageous as it is time consuming to redirect the articles away from their main path of travel in order to process them.
Other known conveyor systems include labelling machines which interact with the conveyor line and a number of containers travelling thereon. The labelling machines often also include a synchronization apparatus which engages and receives the containers, and subsequently releases the containers at predefined time periods onto the conveyor in time for engagement and labelling by a label transport system. This approach also interferes with the normal flow of the containers on the conveyor line.
Other known conveyor systems for processing articles such as clinical containers employ a plurality of conveyors and a control assembly. The control assembly is located on the conveyor system and is used to examine and process the containers using identification labels. The control assembly then redirects the containers to another conveyor line for further testing and processing accordingly.
The difficulty with these conveyor systems is that they generally interrupt the travel path of articles along the conveyor line in order to provide the appropriate processing such as identification, examination and the like. The processing means employed are time consuming and hinder the continuous movement of the articles along the conveyor line by redirecting the articles away from the main conveyor onto other conveyor lines for subsequent testing and/or processing.
In addition, these types of conveyor systems are complex to manufacture and require precise synchronization between a multitude of processing and conveyor systems to prevent adjacent articles from jamming against one another and possibly causing breakage.
Accordingly, there is a need for a conveyor system and processing assembly that minimally interferes with the path of travel of articles on the conveyor system. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate at least some of the above-presented disadvantages.